Archive for July, 2018

Real estate technology is creating a lot of advancements, including when it comes to property surveys. Did you know that you can often access land survey records online?

A survey can provide potential issues, such as fencing that extends past the property line, or an overhanging garage roof. In the past, obtaining a survey has been a major cost and inconvenience, especially when a new survey is required. But some services offer the ability to access online property surveys and plans.

A survey can also reveal important information to your client. For example, if they plan to put in a double garage, they’ll need to check if the property is zoned for one. Or maybe your client wants to use part of their property for a business. A survey can reveal these restrictions that may pose problems later.

Whether your client is buying or selling a house, a property survey may be required.

When buying a home, you might need to confirm that what is being sold is actually for sale.

When selling a home, you may need to confirm what land is actually available for sale.

If considering building or renovating, permits for many exterior projects require survey plans.

Boundary disputes: a survey plan can help quickly resolve this.

GeoWarehouse offers online property surveys and plans, so if your client needs a survey, check our store first — we might have one available for the property in question.

In our online store, subscribers can access plan images, such as reference plans and plans of subdivision. This can help identify property boundaries and their location. You can also view an image of the Survey Plan portion of a Surveyor’s Real Property Report, Building Location Survey, or other undeposited Plan provided by third-party surveying firms. This can grant you dimensions of boundaries and structural elements on the land.

If a survey is available online, it can save you a lot of time and money and make you look even better to your client. Online property surveys cost a lot less than requesting a whole new survey! The time to get it is also vastly reduced as its delivered electronically.

Don’t let a sale be delayed because of a lack of survey — the next time your client needs a property survey, check online first. Search for surveys and plans in the GeoWarehouse Store. If you’re not already a subscriber, become one today at www.geowarehouse.ca.

Collection agencies, law enforcement, private investigators, and more will benefit greatly from our FREE new eBook, How to Locate Property and Assets and Investigate Equity.

This eBook is perfect for anyone who relies on property-related data to search for people, locate assets, or assess available equity.

In this eBook, you’ll learn:

What type of property-related data is the most relevant to your investigations.

How to search for specific information.

The criteria you need to use to evaluate property search tools.

You’ll come out of it with a clear understanding to how locate property/assets, evaluate home equity, and uncover your subject’s financial history and financial standing.

This eBook is available today for free. Just click here to get started downloading.

GeoWarehouse is your source for property-related data searches and more. We source our data from the Province of Ontario Land Registry Information System, meaning that all of our property data is accurate, up-to-date, and available when you need it.

Learn more about how you can access our investigative property tools. Contact Philip Share by calling 416-643-1028 or email philip.share@teranet.ca.

The early bird gets the worm — the same could be said for real estate opportunities. You don’t necessarily need to wake up early (or eat worms!), but if you’re waiting until a property is listed to consider it as a lead, you’re at a disadvantage.

Think about it — once a property is listed for sale, it’s up for grabs and you’ll have to deal with tough competition. But if you’re the one sourcing an opportunity, you can set the terms and get ahead of the crowd.

Some of the best real estate leads and investment opportunities can be found outside of listing sites. You just need to know where to look and how to look for it.

The biggest secret to get ahead is property research and evaluation tools. A good tool should tell you:

Who lives in area.

The types of properties and owners/tenants.

The types of residents — religion, ethnicity, etc.

A property’s legal description.

What a property is worth.

Mortgages owed against the property.

And much more.

This enables you to find real estate investment opportunities quickly and act on them before anyone else even knows they exist.

A good property research tool will also let you search with broad parameters — for instance, if you know a property’s address, you could enter it in, but if you just want to search in a particular area, your research tool should provide you that flexibility. It should also be fast, convenience, and above all accurate.

We can only speak to one tool — ours, GeoWarehouse. With a GeoWarehouse property search, all you have to do is select a Land Registry Office, enter in your search criteria, and your requested information will appear.

You can also search by property owner name, property address, street name, and more. With GeoWarehouse, you can also access a Parcel Register* to see the original registration number at the time a property was purchased. You can use this to request an Instrument Image* and obtain complete contact information for the property owner’s lawyer. With these tools, you can also look at registered mortgages and liens to understand the property owner’s financial position.

Another important step that can help you evaluate properties that aren’t yet listed is finding out their value — you want to know whether this is a good investment or sales lead. An automated valuation model (AVM) can tell you this and more. It will give you an estimated range, which you can use to prepare an offer.

Technology can help you stand out from the crowd, but you want to make sure your data source is accurate and up-to-date. GeoWarehouse is powered by information from the Province of Ontario Land Registration System (POLARIS), so you know you’re getting the best data available.

Learn more about how to access these property research tools and find new real estate opportunities. Become a GeoWarehouse subscriber today at www.geowarehouse.ca.

In June the Teranet–National Bank National Composite House Price Index™ was up 0.9% from May. Though large at first glance, the increase was the third-smallest for June in the last 14 years. If we ignore the seasonal component of monthly variations, we cannot speak of a soaring index. The latest run of monthly increases is merely a recovery of ground lost in the second half of last year. The composite index is now barely above its previous peak of August 2017.

As in May, prices were up in 10 of the 11 metropolitan markets surveyed, led by Ottawa-Gatineau (2.0%), Hamilton (1.8%), Edmonton (1.5%), Victoria (1.3%), Toronto (1.2%) and Halifax (1.0%). The Toronto rise was the smallest since 2008 for a month of June. The Quebec City index rose apace with the countrywide average of 0.9%. Gains were smaller in Montreal (0.7%), Vancouver (0.6%) and Calgary (0.6%), and the index for Winnipeg was down 1.0% on the month. The rise in Vancouver was the fourth-smallest since 2001 for a month of June.

Over the first half of the year the Toronto index rose at an annual rate of 5.7%. For the condo segment the rate was 12.1%, for other housing only 2.9%, reflecting a tight seller’s market for condos. The Vancouver story is similar: condo segment up 17.6% annualized since last September, other dwelling types up 4.9%.

Five of the 11 markets reached a new high in June: Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal, Halifax and Ottawa-Gatineau. The market furthest from its previous peak was Toronto, down 4.8% from its reading of last July.

Teranet-National Bank National Composite House Price Index™

In June the composite index was up 2.9% from a year earlier, the smallest 12-month rise since October 2013 and a 12th consecutive deceleration from the record 12-month gain of 14.2% last June. The January 12-month rise was led by Vancouver (13.3%), Victoria (9.3%), Ottawa-Gatineau (4.7%), Montreal (3.6%) and Halifax (3.2%). The 12-month gain was slim in Winnipeg (1.3%), Quebec City (0.7%), Calgary (0.3%) and Edmonton (0.2%). Indexes were down from a year earlier for Hamilton (−0.4%) and Toronto (−2.8%).

In addition to the Toronto and Hamilton indexes, included in the composite index, indexes exist for the seven other urban areas of the Golden Horseshoe. In June, three of these seven (Barrie, Kitchener and Oshawa) were, like Toronto and Hamilton, below their various peaks of July, August or September 2017. The other four (Guelph, Brantford, St. Catharines and Peterborough) reached new peaks. Indexes not included in the composite index also exist for seven markets outside the Golden Horseshoe, five of them in Ontario and two in B.C. The indexes for these last two, Abbotsford-Mission and Kelowna were, like those for Vancouver and Victoria, at new peaks in June. The same was true of the indexes for Thunder Bay, Windsor, London and Kingston in Ontario.

On July 11, 2018, Canadian housing interest rates rose for the fourth time in a year, going up to 1.5%.

The Bank of Canada interest rate increases began in July of 2017, going from 0.5% to 0.75%. From there, they went to 1% in September of 2018, and 1.25% in January of 2018. The July 11, 2018 announcement is the most recent increase.

Higher interest rates mean that Canadians will have to pay more on outstanding, unsecured debts, including credit cards, unsecured lines of credit, and variable-rate mortgages.

This could also affect potential homeowners as mortgage lenders have to stress test mortgages against current interest rates following the introduction of B-20 guidelines in January of 2018.

Lenders are encouraged to look at the gross debt service ratio (GDS), meaning the percentage of a person’s household-related debt, and the total debt service ratio (TDS), meaning the percentage of a person’s total debt, rather than using only the loan-to-value ratio of a potential property purchase.

The Bank of Canada (BOC) has been hinting for months that more interest rate hikes were on the horizon, and this month it came to fruition.

The BOC referenced several reasons for the increase in its statement, including the Canadian housing market.

“Canada’s economy continues to operate close to its capacity and the composition of growth is shifting,” the BOC stated.

In past years, the Canadian economy depended on lower interest rates to stay afloat — household spending and the Canadian real estate market were both big economic drivers. But recently that makeup has changed and those items are not as critical. Instead, exports, business investments, and the like are becoming the economic strongholds.

More interest rate increases are expected to come but will take a gradual approach. The BOC will be monitoring incoming data, the impact of higher interest rates, capacity and wage pressures, and trade actions.

According to Bloomberg, investors are anticipating additional hikes every six months or so until the benchmark rate settles around 2 or 2.25% by the end of 2019.

The next BOC announcement is scheduled for September 5, 2018.

GeoWarehouse can help you navigate Bank of Canada interest rate impacts to the Canadian housing market. Our tools help make you a property expert, so you can find new real estate leads, assess neighbourhood demographics, compare sales, and more.

Purview, Teranet’s property resource for mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders, and mortgage insurers, has a new website!

Since its inception, Purview has been dedicated to giving mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, and mortgage insurers the Power of More. More information, more deals, more referrals. And now, more access.

The NEW Purview gives mortgage agents the familiar tools they love — property search, risk assessment, land title registry, and property valuation tools — plus even more features they will use over and over again.

With Purview, mortgage brokers, lenders, and insurers can access the same property data as GeoWarehouse subscribers, creating alignment across the board.

Use Appraisal Technology to Boost Your Business

Do you want to become the “Agile Appraiser?” Besides sounding like a superhero name, increasing your appraisal agility will help you work faster, adapt to changes, and boost your client appeal. The secret doesn’t lie in a red cape or a radioactive spider bite, though — instead, it’s in your appraisal technology.

Real estate tools are enabling home appraisers to approach their profession and automate their workflows like never before. With streamlined tools, easy searches, and instant results, you can do more from your desk. Multi-property search functionality makes finding the data you need easier than ever.

According to Canadian Property Valuation Magazine, when they’re relevant to the appraisal, a desktop review can dramatically increase production rates (valuations/reviews per day). Most jurisdictions conducting a desktop review can complete it in approximately 10 minutes, whereas a site visit can take approximately 40 minutes, not including travel. This can allow you to spend more time in analysis, rather than building the data.

Don’t wait to get started. Want to become the “Agile Appraiser?” Here are the tools that will get you there:

Access Property Details Virtually

Appraisal technology like the GeoWarehouse Property Details Report lets you access gives you valuable Land Registry information, MPAC Assessment data, property ownership information, sales history, images, and more. Plus, it’s completely customizable. Use this when determining a property’s market value — all the information you need in one place.

3D Virtual Property Tours

In many cases, you can view a property without ever stepping foot on it. StreetScape and PivotView Imagery lets you virtually “walk” around a property, even peering around corners. With crisp, clear images that can rotate 180 degrees, you can get a good overview of the site without leaving your desk.

Surveys and Plans at the Click of a Button

Property surveys and plans can oftentimes be accessed online. Data includes legal boundaries, easements, encroachments, and rights of way, plus the location of physical buildings and structures and their dimensions. In our GeoWarehouse store you can access reference plans, subdivision plans, and condominium plans.

If your job requires any sort of property data research, the GeoWarehouse store will be your new best ally.

The GeoWarehouse store is an online store exclusively available to GeoWarehouse subscribers. The store offers property research products you will come to rely on, including ownership history, validating client information, Instrument Images*, property surveys, plans, and much more.

This is information that could make or break your deal — and it’s all available at the tip of your fingers.

Whether you’re a real estate sales professional, a developer, a planner, surveyor, collection agency, private investigator, or other profession that relies on property data, the GeoWarehouse store can help you.

So, what’s available in-store? Lots! Some of our most popular store searches are for:

POLARIS Parcel Registers*

Instrument Images* to discover liens, mortgages, and more

MPAC Assessment Reports

Property surveys and plans

StreetScape and PivotView property imagery — view the subject property as if you were standing on the street!

GeoWarehouse subscribers can browse the store for free and most reports are instantly available for download or are automatically emailed to you.